Okay, now I know you have a problem, for sure!!!!
A severe case of the DSE (Disney Snowball Effect)! Wow! Two weeks at WDW and 2 weeks at DLR - all in one vacation? So you just spent a full month at Disney theme parks?? And you have been back home for less than 2 weeks and are already scoping out prices for next Christmas at WDW? You have definitely been bitten by the bug! I must say - as much as a lot of us here
say we wish we could spend 1 or 2 weeks straight in DLR alone (not even counting WDW), I wonder how many of us could actually do it when it came down to it. I think once the reality of a 2-week stay at DLR set in for many folks, it would be too much for them or they would get very bored. Some folks get bored after just a few days.
So I applaud you and your family for flying the Disney banner proudly and devoting a month of your life in one vacation to Disney parks! That is true devotion that many locals with Annual Passes do not even have! May I ask - did you stay in Disney hotels in both Anaheim and in Orlando, or did you stay offsite? And did you hit all the character meals in both places? You certainly had enough time to! And did you feel like you accomplished everything you wanted to do in both places by the time you left them, or were there still things left to see or do? I know if I have only been at DLR for a few days, I feel like I have skipped a lot, but after 2 weeks I would probably have left no stone unturned!
LOL, I think we'd only been at WDW a few hours before I was planning our return trip! We stayed on-site (POP Century) at WDW and it was great!!
We had decided to buy the dining plan but were extremeley fortunate in that we scored free dining and we had 10 (I think) character meals - this took the pressure off having to find the characters in the parks (not to mention the bank balance, lol).
We were there for 13 days and stayed onsite the entire time bar one day when we visited Kennedy Space Centre (highly recommend a visit here BTW).
Thanks to the DISboards I didn't find WDW as overwhelming as it could have been, and I was able to take advantage of things I'd read here, such as catching the monorail between certain locations rather than the bus etc.
I have to say that there is a huge difference between WDW and DL, and it mainly came down to the cast members. This was my/our first trip to WDW but my 7th or 8th trip to DL. From the time we got off the plane in Orlando, till the time we returned to the airport, it was as though it was the cast members mission in life to make sure we had a magical 'Disney Day'. This was the case at all the WDW parks, the water park, Downtown Disney and the hotels we visited. WDW is a very well oiled machine. I can probably count on one hand the number of negative experiences we had.
The same, however, can't be said for DL and the 2 DL hotels we stayed at (Paradise Pier and the DL Hotel). The prevailing attitude seemed to be 'well, this is my job, here I am, now what?' This is not true of all the cast members of course, but the attitude was enough to give us a completely different vibe from WDW.
Add in the lack of dining plan (free or otherwise), no Fastpasses on popular rides such as Peter Pan, less appealing souveniers than WDW (most of it was the same, but there were some glaring omissions), and it just didn't seem to be as 'magical' as I remember. On the plus side, it was definitely easier to move around between parks and to escape to the 'outside' world.
For years I had wanted to stay at the
Disneyland Hotel. Sad to say that the DL Hotel was one of the worst hotels I have ever stayed in anywhere in the world - overpriced, shabby, noisy, dirty, and so 'un-Disney' that I can't believe it's called the Disneyland Hotel. The value level POP hotel at WDW was better than the $400/night DL Hotel. We spent the last 4 nights of our trip there, and frankly, couldn't wait to leave. We spent 5 nights at Paradise Pier and it was ok. The best stay we had in Anaheim was offsite at the Desert Palms, a hotel we will definitely return to.
We didn't visit the parks at DL everyday. We had a 14 day pass but we also visited (or rather, revisited) Universal,
Legoland, Tijuana, Knotts and did some shopping. We mainly ate offsite as the prices at DL were ridiculous.
The only character meal we did at DL was Lilo and Stitch for my son's birthday and the Pat e Cake birthday party with Mickey and Minnie, and they were both great meals. Not having free dining certainly makes you rethink those character meals, lol. There also wasn't the variety of character meals to choose from; I have 2 boys, so the Ariel meal wasn't really an option.
Honestly, I think the kids (12 and 8) did get a bit bored at DL at times, but whether that was due to Disney overload, or the fact that there were only 2 parks instead of 4 plus water parks, I don't know. Maybe it was even because we'd been away from home for 4-5 weeks by then (had also visited NYC and Washington DC/Virginia). DD in Anaheim was, honestly, horrible, compared to DD at WDW. I know there's a lack of land at DL compared to WDW, but DD DLR seemed to be full of overpriced shops and restuarants, few of which held any appeal to us. On the other hand we loved DD at WDW.
No, I don't think we've seen everything at either park. On the way home I was thinking that I wish we'd done this or that, but that makes me even more determined to return.
For me, a trip to the US isn't complete without a visit to DL, preferably on the way home, so I can go home on a high. I'll still continue to do that, but I would love to stay at WDW for 3 weeks next time, and perhaps visit a few offsite places (Universal, Miami, etc). To do that I'm now willing to 'sacrifice' time at DL; maybe only stay a week, instead of 10-14 days.
Most Australians/NZers tend to stay 2-3 weeks in the US/Anaheim area as it costs so much in both time and money to get there, that we want our money's worth! Not all of that time is spent at DL though. Most people get 4-5 weeks holiday a year so that makes it easier to plan slightly longer holidays than people from many other countries.
might see you there.
I'm staying at Hojo so if you stay there, we might run into each other. Probably not at the parks though since it's going to be insanely crowded. It'll be my first time spending the holidays there so I'm a little worried as well but look at it this way, if you do end up being stuck in the middle of a crowd, there will probably still be tons of awesome decorations and Disney magic to soak in 
Have an awesome trip 
- but we figure World of Colour and the Little Mermaid will be running then - maybe even Carsland but I don't think I can wait THAT long! I occassionally start to ponder a WDW trip but that extra distance/expense puts me off a little....
), we have agreed to another visit in May 2012. I know this seems a long way off, but our trip this last November was decided on in 2006- so the wait won't be as long.
and I have Tokyo and hopefully Hong Kong pencilled in for 2011 so it'll probably be 2012 when we return, quite a long time but I guess the upside is the DCA renovations will be complete 
